


The Henna Factor

by simranwrites



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family, Love, M/M, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:08:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28099701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simranwrites/pseuds/simranwrites
Summary: Mehndi or Henna: a form of body art and temporary skin decoration originating in ancient India, in which decorative designs are created on a person’s body, using a paste, created from the powdered dry leaves of the henna plant
Relationships: Haru/Jet (Avatar), Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 14





	The Henna Factor

Jet loved being a henna artist. He loved the designs, whether it be the leaves, the flowers, even the little circles brought him happiness. He adored slowly, but carefully applying the henna onto the person’s hand. He cherished seeing his design come together piece by piece. 

He loved being a henna artist, but he hated working with certain people. Especially people whose day job was probably being annoying to people doing them a service. 

He currently was dealing with one such customer, who, for the entire visit so far, had managed to break one of his vases and annoy him to death by constantly moving around. 

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but you need to be still in order for the design to come out properly,” Jet tried to say before getting cut off from the lady in front of him, who started to rant about something; Jet wasn’t really sure about what.

He tried to put on a brave face and nodded, just listening to the woman, before trying his best with the design. He nearly had to shove her out after he was finished with the henna. 

When she finally left, Jet put his head on the table and let out a groan. Today hadn’t been a great day, and the customer hadn’t helped with that at all.

Soon, he heard footsteps coming closer to him, and he slowly lifted his head and saw Smellerbee, who was walking towards him with a bag of murukku. Jet stuck his hand out, taking the bag from her. 

“Please tell me it’s almost four,” he said, almost with a whine. When Smellerbee nodded, Jet got up immediately, and took some more murukku. 

“Finally. Sometimes, Wu’s school is too long,” Jet muttered under his breath, walking out of the room, only turning back when he heard Smellerbee’s laugh. 

“You love him don’t you,” she said, with a smirk. 

“Of course not! He’s annoying, and you know it. You’ve seen him,” Jet retorted while crossing his arms and walking quickly out of the room. 

At four on the dot he heard the front bell ring and soon the loud voice, of someone who could only be Wu. Jet walked to the front, looking at Wu with a soft smile.

“I bought some extra food today. But first, mango lassies for everyone!” Wu exclaimed, giving Jet a grin and passing out the drinks. 

He saw Smellerbee and Longshot take the drinks, and Jet leaned in to get a drink as well. 

He took a sip, before turning back to Wu and asking, “How was school today?” 

“Anna, could we wait at least five minutes before you ask that. Just 5 minutes for me to put the food down,” Wu replied, rolling his eyes as he took his own drink, and setting down the food in his hands as he did so.

Jet laughed. “Very funny, now come on, tell us everything,” he said with a smile. He leaned against the nearby counter and waited for Wu to answer. 

“It was fine,” Wu replied, after six minutes had passed. “Nothing new, and homework is still a bastard,” he continued as he finished the lassi. 

“I mean, you have to do it. It’s important,” Jet said, trying to get Wu to understand the importance of polynomials. 

Wu went to go wash his hands, sitting down when he came back and taking a box of biryani with him. 

“I know, I will. Also, Kairav anna wants to know when he can start helping with the cricket teams,” Wu said before putting a handful of biryani in his mouth. 

Smellerbee looked at Jet with a grin. “Yeah, the season’s almost starting, the kids will be begging for you to teach them again, you know how they liked it last time.”

Longshot gave a smile and a nod to Jet, agreeing with Smellerbee, as he finished his own drink. 

Jet looked back at the three, thinking for a moment before saying, “We’ll start soon, and I’ll go talk with Kairav about helping.”

The others went back to eating, and Jet started thinking about last season, how he, Smellerbee, Longshot, Wu, and Kairav, who worked in the nearby biryani shop, got together to teach kids cricket. It had turned out to be a success, and apparently people wanted them to continue this year. 

He decided that he would talk to Kairav the next day, maybe over some tea, and start hammering out the plans for this season. Hopefully they would be able to get the grounds and the equipment needed and they could hopefully start training the kids in the next month or so. 

When the others finished their food, they went back to work, with Smellerbee and Jet working with the last two customers of the day, and Longshot and Wu working together on the latter’s homework. 

All the customers had just left when Wu ran back into the room saying, “Come on! Let’s go outside for sometime before I have to go back home,” He ran to Jet, before taking his hand. 

“Please?” Wu asked, slightly tugging on Jet’s arm. 

“Fine. We can go for half an hour before I drop you back home,” Jet replied, looking at his watch, before looking back at Wu when he heard him softly cheer. 

They walked out and Jet found Smellerbee and Longshot waiting for them already.

“Wu begged you to come didn’t he?” Smellerbee asked with a slight smirk. 

Wu turned to her, held his hand out and replied, “Akkie please. He wanted to come. I didn’t beg.”

At this, the others started laughing before walking out of the store. 

Jet, who was still trying to hold in his laughter, just threw his arm around Wu before messing with his hair. “Where do you want to go?” he asked, already knowing the answer. 

“To the cricket grounds of course,” Wu chirped before running up to Smellerbee and Longshot, trying to fix his hair as he did so. 

Jet walked behind the others, smiling as he watched them. 

When they reached the grounds, Longshot took out a tennis ball and began bouncing it on his knees while Wu watched with wide eyes. Then without warning he threw it at Jet, who caught it with no hesitation.

“Bastard,” Jet muttered at seeing Longshot’s grin. Jet threw the ball back to him, while Smellerbee decided that she would at least try to teach Wu some more cricket before the season. 

They stayed there for sometime, with Jet and Longshot throwing the ball, and Smellerbee and Wu playing on the pitch. 

When Smellerbee and Wu came back to the group, Smellerbee was laughing about something, while Wu was pouting.

“It turns out that Wu here has his eye on someone.” she said with a laugh. 

Wu turned to her with a glare before saying, “No I don’t. You’re imagining things.”

“Oh sure I am,” she replied with a smile. 

Jet and Longshot watched this before Jet stepped in and said, “That sounds wonderful, now we gotta get going Wu, or your aunt will kill me, forgetting every free henna appointment I’ve given her.”

Wu nodded quickly, if it was to protect Jet, or whether it was to get away from talking about his love life, Jet didn’t know, but he took the win anyway and started to walk back to the shop. Wu followed behind him, probably giving glares to Smellerbee the whole way. 

When they got back to the shop, Jet said a quick goodnight to Smellerbee and Longshot, who were probably gonna be asleep by the time Jet came back. 

He walked out to his motorbike and patted the seat behind him for Wu. Once Wu got on and got ready, Jet started driving. 

The drive to Wu’s house wasn’t too long, but Jet still treasured it every time. 

When they reached Wu’s house, Jet stopped his bike and helped Wu get off, not letting himself look away from Wu. 

Wu started walking to the door before turning around and waving to Jet. “Bye!” he called out, smiling when Jet did the same.

Jet watched Wu walk back into his house and close the door before starting his motorbike and driving back home. 

When he got back, he walked to his room and got on the bed. He took out his phone and sent a text to Kairav, “Hey. What do you think about getting some tea tomorrow?” before gently setting his phone on the counter and drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Henna Artist Jet AU chapter 1? Done
> 
> I am so excited for this fic because it allows me to sneak in parts of my culture and I can't wait!
> 
> I hope you liked it!  
> Thank you Maya for betaing!!!
> 
> Come talk to me on tumblr @ sen-raq


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